Mom purposely drives her 3 children off of a 50-foot cliff, killing them all

On Friday, officials announced that a woman intentionally drove herself and her three children off of a 50 to 70-foot cliff in Idaho last year, in an apparent murder-suicide.

The Idaho Statesman reports that on June 2, 2016, 40-year-old Noel Bankhead drove herself and her children, Gwyneth Voermans, 8, Logan Voermans, 11, and Anika Voermans, 13, off of a cliff and into the Lucky Peak Reservoir in Ada County, Idaho. After over a year of investigation, authorities confirmed that Bankhead purposely killed herself and her children.

According to authorities who worked the case, there were no mechanical issues with Bankhead’s SUV and no tire skid marks on the area she drove off of. Further, an autopsy confirmed that Bankhead didn’t have any medical issues that would have made her lose control of the vehicle. She had no medication or alcohol in her system.

Authorities listed the cause of death for all four people as blunt force trauma and drowning. The blunt force trauma occurred from the impact of the vehicle hitting the water. Witnesses told detectives that Bankhead was driving down a state highway when she made an exit towards the cliff. She then hit the gas pedal and accelerated off of the cliff, sinking the vehicle 40 feet underwater.

Bankhead and her husband divorced a few years prior to her death, although it’s still unclear whether that played a part in the incident. She worked as a paralegal and legal secretary for over 20 years and showed no outward signs that she planned to pull off a murder-suicide.